they have assurance that they will be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Their evidence, that they possess the character of believers, is in proportion to their fulfilling the required conditions of the covenant. As their evidence increases, that they are now interested in the covenant, they have increasing assurance, that all the special blessings, promised to such, do in reality belong to them; and among these special blessings, a sufficiency of grace to keep them from falling, is one of the greatest. The Lord keeps these hidden ones, as the apple of his eye. Deut. xxxii. 10.

We shall now look at the proofs brought forward by Mr. Bangs in opposition to our doctrine, and in support

of theirs.

I. We shall pay some attention to the texts of scripture which he has introduced. At one quotation he introduces the three following passages: If thou seek him he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off forever. 1 Chron. xxviii. 9. And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall, be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed. Isa. i. 28. When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby. Ezek. xxxiii. 18.

There is nothing in our doctrine to oppose the destruction of those who forsake the Lord, i. e. of those who utterly forsake him. But we think the scripture is clear in determining, that they who do thus forsake the Lord, make it evident, that their hearts were never right with him. "They went out from us," saith the apostle John, "but they were not of us." Mr. B. observes, "But St. John does not say they were never of them but only they were not of them at the time they went out." p. 238. This in reality makes the apostle to say nothing. There could be no question, whether they were with the apostle and his brethren, at the time when they forsook them: but he most obviously meant to say; that these apostates had now shown themselves out: For he adds, "If they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out, that they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us." I John ii. 19. The question is asked concerning

the hypocrite, Job xxvii. 10, Will he always call on God? This implies, that it is characteristic of hypocrites, and not of sound believers, to forsake God. Whose house is it which falls ;-the house of him who built on the rock; or of him who built on the sand? Mat. vii. 24 -27. Whose lamps were they which went out ;the lamps of those who took oil in their vessels; or of those who took no oil? Mat. xxv. 1-8. What seed is it which withers away under the scorching beams of the sun;is it that which takes root in a good soil; or is it that which, being resisted by the rock, has no root? Mat. xiii. 3-8.

But it may be said, If those who forsake God are just like other sinners, who never loved God, why are threatenings denounced against them in particular; and why are they threatened with punishment for this particular sin? To this it may be replied; There is the same propriety. in this, as there is in having threatenings denounced against the liar, the profane swearer, the thief, the drunkard, the adulterer, the extortioner, &c. There are some general and comprehensive threatenings, which include all classes of wicked men. Such as these ; "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." "Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish." Some might think, that because these threatenings comprehend all the sinners in the world, other threatenings would be needless. But God is wiser than man, and it has seemed good to him, to point the threatenings of his word against our sinful character, in every manifestation of it. Whatever way the sinner turns, he will find the flaming sword turns with him, and is pointed at his breast. If he make the wickedness of his heart manifest by lying, he is told that “all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." If his wickedness be manifested by murder, or by adultery, or theft, or drunkenness or covetousness, there is a threatening presents itself adapted to his particular sin. So there is a particular threatening for those who will not call on the name of the Lord. This is calculated to arrest their attention. There is another threatening calculated more exactly to fit the case of the hypocrite, who has left off calling on the name of the Lord. Sin

ners are threatened, whose attention cannot be drawn to things of religion. "I have called and ye refused." Sinners are also threatened who forsake the Lord, and renounce the religion which they once appeared to embrace. We can see great wisdom in the particular, as well as in the general threatenings of God's word; tho' the latter include the former. This method of particularizing the threatenings against sin, is well calculated to find out the enemies of the Lord. In this way Divine Wisdom, not only goes out into the broad way, and declares to us, considered as one great company of transgressors, that our way will lead to destruction; but she follows every sinner into his own path, and warns him that this particular path will lead him down to the chambers of death. This is, in other words, to tell him; that the path where he travels, is one of the paths, which is in "the broad way which sinners go." In the Letters before us, it is said; "It should be carefully noted that apostates are threatened for their apostasy, and not for what they were previous to their fall." p. 239. From this the author would infer, that their fall effected a real change in their character, that therefore, antecedent to their fall, their character must have been good, even in the sight of the Searcher of hearts. But might we not with equal propriety infer, that because liars are threatened for telling lies, and drunkards for intoxication, and not for what they were antecedent to their telling lies and becoming intoxicated; therefore, previous to their running into these particular vices, their characters were holy? The truth is, that before this, they were under the comprehensive threatening which includes all impenitent sinners; and now, as soon as their character makes a new display of itself, a new, and more appropriate threatening of divine wrath, stares them in the face.

While apostates remained in the fellowship of the church, and appeared like the children of the kingdom, they were included in the general denunciation of divine wrath against the impenitent. They were also under that more particular threatening, denounced against such as draw near to God with their mouths, and honor him with their lips, while their heart is far from him. But when they came to apostatize from

their apparent attachment to religion, then a new arrow from that divine quiver, which is full of arrows, pierced them. As sinners go on from one degree of wickedness to another, the denunciations of divine wrath become more terrible. This will furnish an answer to the question, put by our author: "If they were always hypocrites, why are they threatened with a sorer pun ishment for having apostatized ?" Let it be remembered, that apostasy is not a frank and humble acknowledg ment, made by the hypocrite, that he has been insincere. No, the way in which he reveals his hypocrisy, is by contemptuously treading under foot those infinite realities, of the truth of which he has been convinced, and which he has even once professed to love. Here is aggravated wickedness, and therefore sorer punishments are threatened.

Mr. B. observes concerning the text in Ezek. xxxiii. 18; "To this text some have objected, That the righteous spoken of were self righteous-but this is a miserable evasion to avoid the point of truth. A self righteous man is a wicked man. And would it not be perfect nonsense to say to a wicked man, that if he turned from his wickedness, and committeth iniquity, all his wickedness should not be remembered, but for his wickedness he should surely die!" p. 232. The sentiment which is here opposed, was not advanced in the Sermon on Perseverance. There it was said: "From a profession of godliness a man may turn away. It is not selfrighteousness which he professes, but the true righteousness of faith; and he is said to turn away from that which he professes to have, though he has it not in reality." Sermons, p. 117. The text in Ezekiel is not designed to teach us, that if this righteous man had continued as he was, he would have been saved; but rather to teach us how vain it is, to make our dependence upon, and expect to be saved, by a religion which does not endure unto the end. He that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved; and the hopes of all others are vain.

The next passage which Mr. B. brings forward, in support of his doctrine, is John xv. 6. If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they

are burned. He argues that being in Christ must imply a vital union with him. There is no doubt but this is the truest, and best sense in which any man is in Christ. It is also true, that this is the most proper sense in which we are members of the church. "He is

a Jew who is one inwardly." They, who are of the synagogue of satan, lie when they say they are Jews, for they are not. They lie, who say they belong to the church of Christ, if they have not the spirit of Christ. And yet in another point of view, many such are in the church; for the kingdom of heaven is compared to a net that was cast into the sea, which gathered of all kinds, both bad and good. To us it appears manifest, that by what the Saviour says about the Vine and the branches, in the 15th chapter of John, he designs to exhibit to our view his whole church, in its present imperfect state; the same as he means to exhibit by the parable of the net cast into the sea, and the parable of the ten virgins. His church is imperfect in these two respects; it has some bad members, and the good niembers are not as yet purged from all iniquity. In the portion of scripture before us, both these kinds of imperfection are noticed. Here are two kinds of branch-es, said to be in the true Vine; namely, branches which bear fruit, and branches which do not bear fruit. We also notice, that the fruitful branches need purging, or pruning, to render them more fruitful: This implies the sinful imperfection of real saints. It is worthy of particular notice, that there is a blessed promise, which is worth more than a mine of gold, made to every fruitful branch; That it shall be purged to render it more fruitful. And certainly the same promise will apply when it shall become more fruitful, that it shall still be purged to render it yet more fruitful. What is here said about the Vine and the branches, was obviously designed to apply to Christ and his church, in different periods of time and yet this particular address, "Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you, might particularly mean his eleven disciples, wha were the only hearers which he then had. The command which followed, was most strictly proper; Abide in me. It has nothing in it repugnant to our views of the certain perseverance of the saints neither has the